New VoxSurf messaging system enables fans to comment on England World Cup qualifiers

VoxSurf, the London-based video messaging solution provider, today announced that the BBC in the UK has deployed its technology to power a new trial called 'Your Shout!' The trial allows football fans to send in 3G video messages with their opinions on the crucial England internationals and during Football Focus broadcasts.

Simply by making a video call and following the on-screen instructions, football fans can leave their comments, with the best content broadcast on live TV during and after the matches, which are being covered live on Match of the Day. The best videos will also be shown on the BBC Sport website.

The trial is based on VoxSurf's VxOne video messaging technology, customised for the BBC. Once video messages are received they are immediately sent to the Match of the Day editorial team as emails. Additionally, the system retains the caller's number, enabling them to be contacted for further opinions or quotes.

It extends BBC Sport's current usage of video messaging capabilities, which is being used on Football Focus, the BBC's Saturday lunchtime football show. Video clips are submitted to Football Focus and then broadcast on the following week's show as well as the Football Focus website.

"The 'Your Shout!' trial is a world first - we haven't seen another method that applies video messaging to allow users to interact with and contribute to live TV broadcasting," commented Andy Munarriz, co-founder of VoxSurf. "It combines the immediacy of the phone with the excitement of video to allow anyone to create personalised content and become a football pundit. With 3G becoming mainstream we see major opportunities for leading broadcasters to get even closer to their viewers."

What’s the hype about? Only 1% of Europeans use VoIP frequently to make calls from home

According to industry hype, voice over IP (VoIP) pure plays like Skype and Vonage are on the verge of transforming and taking over the telecom industry. But Forrester Research believes that pure plays have no chance of dethroning proactive European incumbent telcos from their consumer fixed voice market leadership.

Forrester thinks that VoIP pure plays will fail to survive as independent companies because they don’t offer a truly disruptive and transformational service — and they lack key advantages that the incumbents have. Telcos like British Telecom and France Télécom can continue to dominate future voice markets as long as they maintain their proactive and innovative VoIP response strategies.
 
 “VoIP adoption will certainly help trigger sweeping changes in voice pricing models across the industry. However, that will most likely not lead to the major industry disruptions foreseen by VoIP pure play proponents — at least not on the retail side of the business,” stated Lars Godell, Principal Analyst, Telecom, at Forrester Research, and author of a recent VoIP study. “Forrester sees the consumer VoIP hype as wild exaggerations, reminiscent of the UMTS hype, dot-com, and telecom bubble days. The ‘no free lunch’ principle applies: Someone will always bear the costs of delivering the service. Voice calls will never be absolutely free, but the hype — and the pure plays — do teach some important lessons. To avoid the predicted upcoming telecom power shift, incumbent telcos must fully wake up and restructure their business, including their innovation activities.”
 
 It doesn’t help much if a new technology is very disruptive in a market that will remain rather small for years to come. “VoIP isn’t really mature today. It faces a range of problems, including immature SIP technology, unresolved regulatory issues, and a lack of industrial-strength and scalable public network management systems. Consumer apathy and slow broadband uptake will also hold VoIP back.”

As Forrester reported recently, only 1% of Europeans use VoIP frequently to make calls from home, whereas 70% of consumers doesn’t even know what VoIP is. Coupled with relatively low broadband take-up, European consumer VoIP adoption will move slowly. Forrester predicts that VoIP will capture 30% of the residential fixed voice market in 2010 and won’t approach 100% until 2020.
 
 In addition, the incumbent telcos are fighting back: Proactive incumbents like Telecom Italia, France Télécom, and Portugal Telecom launched flat-rate PSTN calling even before VoIP pure plays became a threat, reducing VoIP’s threat to their core PSTN business. Since then, a majority of incumbents have introduced various flat-rate pricing plans, further reducing their vulnerability to VoIP pure plays. Smart incumbents are also tearing down technology silos and focusing on user needs, not technology, further undermining VoIP pure plays’ key selling points. And by launching their own VoIP services, ADSL bundles, and enhanced functionality services, incumbents are fighting the pure plays on their own turf.
 
“Incumbents have many advantages — if they respond in time and with force,” Godell noted. “They are well used to fighting low-cost voice competition: BT has been doing that for 23 years. The incumbents have significant advantages in brand name, scope (bundling), scale, customer base, billing, and financial strength over essentially all other challengers, although they do need to improve their customer satisfaction ratings. And while big global portals like MSN, AOL, Yahoo!, and Google have recently made acquisitions and service launches around VoIP and IM voice chat, they will never be able to claim national consumer VoIP market leadership in any Western European country.”
 
Forrester believes that VoIP pure plays will fail in the new telecom world. Falling short of true disruptive potential, lacking all the important advantages of incumbent telcos, and facing more intense VoIP competition from all comers, VoIP pure plays like sipgate, Telio, Gossiptel, and Vonage will not be able to survive for long as profitable free-standing companies. Skype’s investors were lucky to be able to bail out to eBay before the consolidation game kicked in. In Norway, that game has already delivered more than 20 VoIP pure play casualties in less than nine months. The best the pure plays can hope for is to be acquired — or to license their often interesting technology and service concepts.

Partners pledge lower costs and quicker time to market for online bank services and announce first joint deal with Spanish banking group BBVA

Intelligent Environments (iE) and Mistral have signed a partnership agreement to provide application development and hosting services for banks. Online financial software specialist iE and business connectivity services provider Mistral say the agreement will enable banks to deploy secure, scalable online services faster and at lower cost than in-house IT departments.

Spanish banking group BBVA is the partnership’s first customer. BBVA is using iE’s NetFinance software running on Mistral-hosted servers to support its innovative new credit card aimed at frequent travellers.

According to iE and Mistral, the alliance is based on complementary business and technical skills in a sector where both firms are already strong players. iE’s client list includes HBOS, HSBC, RBS and The Bank of New York, while Mistral provides services to Lloyds TSB, RBS and M&G Prudential, among others.

Jerry Mulle, director of sales and marketing, iE, said: “NetFinance has helped our customers deliver secure, scalable, high-performance financial applications online. But even the best-run systems can run into problems when transaction volumes grow beyond the capacity of the hardware or the network has insufficient bandwidth to handle peak loads.

“In Mistral, we have a partner who can guarantee that whatever promises we make about the quality of the software will be kept from the moment the application is deployed to the end of its operational life.”

Jason Vaughan-Phillips, business development manager, Mistral, said: “For the client, the key issues are peace of mind and cost of ownership. Quantity of service factors – processing capacity and bandwidth – are important, but financial institutions also expect first-rate security, project management and technical support.

“With trading conditions as tough as ever, it’s not enough to match the cost of providing the same level of service in-house. We need to be able to demonstrate significantly lower cost of ownership. iE shares our belief that high performance and quality of service can still be achieved without sacrificing cost benefits.”

According to analysts, customers can make savings of between 25% and 32% in the first year by outsourcing their hosting requirements. The majority of projects now undertaken by iE have involved NetFinance running on third-party servers, a customer preference that continues to increase given internal IT constraints. Outsourced hosting is the fastest growing part of Mistral’s business with revenues increasing 100% year-on-year.

iE’s Mulle said: “The hosting trend is well established. Just as you don’t need to own the road to make a journey, businesses are realising that they don’t need to own the infrastructure to deliver viable services.”

Data security and Return on Investment concern end users and investors

According to a new report from Frost & Sullivan, enterprises are increasingly being forced to meet requirements from their field staff to provide flexibility and real-time access to critical data. And this growing demand has provided a boost to sales in the European wireless enterprise applications market.

Companies are utilising wireless applications such as wireless e-mail, sales force automation (SFA), field service management (FSM) and field force automation (FFA) to boost sales productivity, enhance field service responsiveness and reduce cycle time, says the report. Vendors and their target markets alike recognise the competitive advantage afforded by wireless enterprise applications. These applications help field workers function more efficiently by giving them up-to-the-minute information and enable sales staff to check inventory and field resources to guarantee their clients the immediate delivery of goods.

As an example, wireless SFA facilitates mobile extension of integrated, front office Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to sales personnel so that they can plan, schedule and control the pre- and post-sales activities in an organisation. The benefits provided by SFA include access to product and pricing information, updates on changes to sales promotions, access to customer account information, and real-time ordering capabilities. This constitutes an outstanding level of customer service and provides real benefits to companies in terms of sales levels and sales renewals from satisfied clients, says Frost & Sullivan.

Mainly targeted toward service and repair technicians, FFA provides mobile employees with access to software designed to automate core business processes as well as coordinate work orders and related activities through rugged, handheld devices. Another wireless application, FSM, helps manage and monitor assets, employees and services. It allows enterprises to reduce expenses associated with the delivery of products and services through improved monitoring of mobile assets.

However, despite these multiple benefits, it is wireless e-mail, which allows end users to access and respond to e-mails in remote locations, that dominates the wireless enterprise applications market in terms of adoption rates. This is partly due to the fact that it was the first application to be developed by vendors in the market and is being used as a test bed for other wireless applications.

Furthermore – the report continues – the existence of millions of untapped corporate and private e-mail accounts the world over ensures continued growth in this segment. While many wireless enterprise applications are yet to offer the full range of functionalities provided by their fixed network-based counterparts, their ability to respond to customer requirements in real time is truly compelling.

However, potential investors are concerned about data security in wireless enterprise applications. It is a complex issue that requires monitoring at a number of levels, beginning with the transmission of data and the physical security of wireless devices to supervising security at both technical and policy levels. Applications vendors, security vendors and mobile operators have to work together towards this end. They also need to educate the end user market, which remains the most vulnerable to security risks, to guarantee wireless and mobile security.

Though many wireless enterprise application vendors have proven successful in mobilising sales and can point to a strong track record in their Returns On Investment (ROI), every implementation is different and carries its own risks and rewards, points out Frost & Sullivan in the report. Proving that the rewards outweigh the risks gets easier as the market grows: vendors learn to maximise opportunities in their potential markets, reference customers become more plentiful, and a larger pool of independent resources and advice are made available.

However, many end users remain unconvinced that they will see such returns within an acceptable period. Others are still not clear of the total cost of ownership, including start-up costs. In addition, there are considerable on-going costs of services, which are less quantifiable at the early investment stage. Companies have to solve these issues before any competitive advantage can be gained and ROI is met.

Enterprises and vendors need to seamlessly integrate applications within the existing organisational systems and train the workforce in using the devices to accelerate adoption rates, concludes Frost & Sullivan.

Force10 Networks has announced that it has expanded its presence in Europe and Asia with three new technical assistance centres (TACs) that will allow the company to better serve its rapidly growing worldwide customer base.  With new TACs in London, Tokyo and Chennai, India, Force10 is said to be providing service and support around-the-clock.

"Force10's success is due, in large part, to strong customer loyalty derived from leading technology and outstanding service and support both during product deployments and after," said Bahman Sohrabi, vice president of customer support at Force10 Networks.  "These new centres extend our abilities to provide superior service and support in Europe and Asia at a time when our worldwide customer presence is rapidly growing."

In Europe, Force10 has opened a technical assistance centre in London, which is also home to one of Force10's European sales offices.  The new TAC provides dedicated engineering support for Force10's growing European customer base.  Last week, Force10 announced that CERN is deploying the TeraScale E-Series in Europe's largest campus network, which will connect more than 8,000 processors and storage devices.  Additionally, CERN is leveraging the TeraScale E-Series to deploy the first intercontinental 10 Gigabit Ethernet WAN links in a production network.  Other recent European deployments include Netherlands-based hosting provider True and Europe's largest supercomputer at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre.

The Force10 TeraScale E-Series is said to support 1,260 Gigabit Ethernet and 56 line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports in a single system, and provides the long-term scalability that enables seamless and cost-effective network expansion without disruption.

Strategic collaboration to create ‘Services on Demand’ and drive grid adoption across Spanish and Latin American markets

DataSynapse, provider of adaptive grid infrastructure solutions, has entered into a Collaboration Agreement with Telefónica Soluciones, the solutions provider subsidiary of Telefónica, the leading telecoms group in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking markets, to offer advanced grid computing benefits to Telefónica’s global customer base.

GridServer will enable Telefónica Soluciones’ customers to move to a Services on Demand grid environment where heterogeneous system resources are pooled, virtualised and allocated as needed to satisfy the unpredictable demand for computing power.  GridServer’s virtualisation capabilities improve productivity and performance levels across the customer’s enterprise without having to rewrite code or re-factor the entire system architecture. GridServer will dynamically provision services in varying quantities against variable infrastructure resources and prevent over-provisioning of compute resources in different areas of the organisation and that of its clients. 
 
It is anticipated that Telefónica’s fixed and mobile telephony businesses will quickly and efficiently realise the benefits of a service-oriented architecture (SOA), delivering optimised application performance and resource utilisation which will guarantee higher service levels and application resiliency.  For Telefónica’s 122 million customers, GridServer will enable improved service levels across the firm’s customer portals, faster statement provisioning and powerful reporting with improved reliability.
 
"A handful of European telcos are now poised to begin developing services for external users that employ grids.  The telcos have a wide variety of potential business models around grids, from saving money on internal applications to more lofty ambitions of becoming grid resource brokers," said William Fellows, Principal Analyst with The 451 Group, a technology industry analyst company focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation. This comment appeared in an independent 451 Grid Adoption Research Service (GARS) report, titled “Grid Computing – The Telco Opportunity,” which was published in October 2004.
 
“As a world leader in the telecoms services market, we offer our customers the very best service levels and we are delighted to be partnering with a grid computing firm with proven market expertise,” said Eliseo Sánchez Trasobares, CEO of Telefónica Soluciones. “Together, DataSynapse and Telefónica Soluciones will offer the best balance of local knowledge and management with innovative, world-leading grid technology.”
 
“No matter the industry, firms are facing an increasing demand for compute power with fewer resources at their disposal, making grid technology an attractive prospect,” said Willy Ross, DataSynapse managing director of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).  “Our partnership with Telefónica enables us to gain a firm foothold in the Spanish and Latin American markets giving us enormous potential for business growth.  GridServer offers powerful capabilities that can add value to firms in any sector, be it financial services, telecoms, government, manufacturing or energy.”

Deal strengthens QinetiQ’s ‘internet for rail’ business

QinetiQ has announced the acquisition of parts of Broadreach Networks Limited, including its subsidiary Broadreach Train Services Limited, a leading provider of Wi-Fi internet to the European rail industry.

Broadreach will be merged with QinetiQ’s existing wireless services operations for rail, creating a strengthened business called QinetiQ Rail Limited that will focus on the delivery of onboard internet for trains, other important onboard services supported by wireless communications, and static internet hotspots at stations.
 
Train operating companies around Europe are increasingly looking to provide mobile internet access to improve customer services and differentiate themselves from the competition from air and road travel.  Recent research conducted by Broadreach suggested that 77% of business travellers wanted Wi-Fi onboard trains, with 70% of respondents saying they would be more likely to travel by train if Wi-Fi was provided.
 
Broadreach was formed in 2000 and its major shareholders included BT, Virgin and Intel.  Broadreach has well-established relationships with a number of the leading train operating companies including Eurostar and Virgin Trains.  Broadreach has already installed its Connected Carriage system on Virgin’s Voyager train and is currently undertaking a series of technical and commercial trials with Virgin Trains.
 
Broadreach also brings a number of contracts to provide static wireless hotspots at train stations, which will be consolidated with contracts awarded by FirstGroup through QinetiQ’s partnership with The Cloud, Europe’s leading Wi-Fi company.
 
Announcing the deal, Hal Kruth, Managing Director of QinetiQ’s Security and Commercial Ventures Sector, said:  “This deal combines the strengths of two very complementary companies.  Broadreach has established sound relationships with operators and suppliers alike which gives us real traction in the marketplace.  When you add QinetiQ’s technical know-how, particularly in wireless technology and the provision of real-time information systems, the result is a business that is well placed to exploit the increasing demand for internet access across the European rail network.” 
 
Magnus McEwen-King, founder of Broadreach and now CEO of QinetiQ Rail Limited, added:  “It is clear that wireless internet access at stations and on trains gives rail operators a real competitive edge, particularly with business passengers. However, the formation of QinietiQ Rail enhances the offering to rail operators by adding fleet operation and security propositions that utilise the Connected Carriage system. QinetiQ Rail represents a winning combination of technological expertise, solid long term backing, a clear commercial approach and strong working relationships with key players in the European rail industry.”

i-Free, a Russian leader in mobile value added services, has leveraged its proprietary technology solutions to design a 'unique' WAP portal for Voxtel, Moldova's largest cell phone operator, and is now the exclusive supplier of premium content for that portal.

Expanding horizons for mobile phone users, WAP portals give them access to a cornucopia of fully updated, perfectly detailed information right from their mobile phone. Any time, day and place, mobile phone users can read the news, check currency exchange rates, flight or train timetables, and obtain other helpful information and download cool content. The WAP portal of a cell phone operator is a user-friendly information tool helping build up subscriber loyalty.

The wap.myvoxtel.md portal, created by i-Free for Voxtel, is unparalleled in the former Soviet Union. What stands out the most about the portal is its WAP billing feature, pioneered by Voxtel in Moldova. It required some special technology solutions, and that's where i-Free stepped in.

WAP billing is said to be an innovative system benefiting both the operator and content users. With WAP billing, users no longer have to do the inconvenient procedure where they had to memorize a code, then SMS it to a number, in order to download content. With WAP billing, once the user is informed about the content price, he or she can proceed right to the content and download it immediately.

This billing system also makes things easier for the mobile operator: before sending the content ordered by a user, the operator can make sure there is enough money in the user's account to pay for that content. Moreover, WAP billing enables the operator to flexibly change its rates as service content keeps expanding.

The technology solution embedded in the WAP-billed portal is i-Free's own CDMS (Content Distribution and Management System). This hard- and software package creates numerous new opportunities for WAP resources, assuring personalized service for every user and guaranteeing premium quality products and services for all users without exception, claims the company.

CDMS integrates a constantly updated knowledge base with detailed technical profiles for all mobile phones on the market in the former Soviet Union, and is geared to the technological specificity of each individual phone make, e.g. screen resolution, number of colors, GPRS throughput, WAP browser features, ability to download polyphonic tunes, realtones, animation, videos, and other types of content.

WAP website pages format themselves automatically to suit every subscriber's phone model. The content arrives in each phone in a format ideally suited for that specific phone model.

CDMS makes the portal accessible from all mobile phone models currently on the market in Moldova and the rest of the FSU.

"i-Free has always been an innovation-driven company. Innovation is our signature," said i-Free Development Manager Ekaterina Petrova, commenting on the Voxtel project. "We have now established yet another WAP resource that is both content-rich and ultimately functional - all thanks to our proprietary technology. We are positive it will take Voxtel to a whole new place vis-a-vis competition, and will be highly appreciated by its subscribers."

In addition, i-Free has been nominated an exclusive supplier of premium content for the wap.myvoxtel.md portal, including polyphonic tunes, realtones, MP3 audio products, games, color images and animation. i-Free also provides technology support for the portal.

Apart from premium content, wap.myvoxtel.md features a phone directory, an address book, flight and train timetables and other helpful information, as well as daily news, currency exchange rates, horoscope, and so on.

The portal is bilingual, designed in Russian and Romanian, with fully localized content. It supports WAP versions 1.2 and 2.0. For extra user convenience, the operator's homepage automatically comes up on the phone menu as soon as Internet connection is established.